Now that my Holy Paladin is just about fully VP geared, I plan on working on my baby Prot Warrior and will see him ding level 85 in a couple of weeks. Using the Failsafe Gear guide along with a few other things, this is the "I just dinged level 85 one hour ago" gear list that I came up with:

- Need to run some Battlegrounds to gain the Honor Points for 1 piece- Need to run instances to gain Justice Points for 1 piece- Need to gain Revered rep with Therazane- Need to do Thrall Level 85 Quest Line- Everything else is gold.

Cata questing line goes Vash ==> Deepholme ==> Instances.

This gets me to about 368 item level gearing which is more than enough to run the 4.3 5-man instances for 378 gear for those slots that don't have it.

A couple of questions:

#1 = Anyone see any obvious upgrades that I should aim for instead? Weakest slots are, obviously, rings and trinkets.

#2 = On that note, what easy to obtain trinkets are out there? I am at a bit of a loss to find trinkets that fit well with a "failsafe, just dinged" mindset. This toon is a Blacksmith / Engineer.

#3 = Do I need to quest at all in Hyjal to open up the Trall Quest Line? I don't need Molten Front stuff, just the Thrall Quest Line.

Flex wrote:no relics for warriors. Need a gun, bow or thrown. ZA or End Time can get you a bow via quests

there is also the JP thrown

that said, if you are able to get into endtimes without much farming of instances, do it and take a guildie healer (or go in your dps os....you have one right?)

Brekkie:Tanks are like shitty DPS. And healers are like REALLY distracted DPSAmirya:Why yes, your penis is longer than his because you hit 30k dps in the first 10 seconds. But guess what? That raid boss has a dick bigger than your ego. Flex:I don't make mistakes. I execute carefully planned strategic group wipes.Levie:(in /g) It's weird, I have a collar and I dont know where I got it from, Worgen are kinky!Levie:Drunk Lev goes and does what he pleases just to annoy sober Lev.Sagara:You see, you need to *spread* the bun before you insert the hot dog.

there is also a hit/mastery gun that is a quest reward from Twilight Highlands

Brekkie:Tanks are like shitty DPS. And healers are like REALLY distracted DPSAmirya:Why yes, your penis is longer than his because you hit 30k dps in the first 10 seconds. But guess what? That raid boss has a dick bigger than your ego. Flex:I don't make mistakes. I execute carefully planned strategic group wipes.Levie:(in /g) It's weird, I have a collar and I dont know where I got it from, Worgen are kinky!Levie:Drunk Lev goes and does what he pleases just to annoy sober Lev.Sagara:You see, you need to *spread* the bun before you insert the hot dog.

As a Engineer, Elementium Dragonling isn't terrible. Mastery w/ on use threat

Also, I know it's only 333, but Impetuous Query is a decent starter trinket. It won't hold you back in getting into EoT dungeons as it's only 20 ilevels and it's got Mastery + Parry on use which I like.

DMF: Earthquake is usually quite cheap. Probably cheaper than any of the other BoEs save for Impetuous Query. The trinket itself is left wanting but a 359 piece might push one over the 353 level if lucky.

Indeed. The sheer level of quest rewards (e.g., the gun) and other 378 stuff in the new dungeons is enough that you might consider some crafted pvp rings rather than wasting your time in Deepholm to get far enough for Felsen's. YMMV and all that.

Kelaan wrote:Indeed. The sheer level of quest rewards (e.g., the gun) and other 378 stuff in the new dungeons is enough that you might consider some crafted pvp rings rather than wasting your time in Deepholm to get far enough for Felsen's. YMMV and all that.

Also, I know it's only 333, but Impetuous Query is a decent starter trinket. It won't hold you back in getting into EoT dungeons as it's only 20 ilevels and it's got Mastery + Parry on use which I like.

DMF: Earthquake is usually quite cheap. Probably cheaper than any of the other BoEs save for Impetuous Query. The trinket itself is left wanting but a 359 piece might push one over the 353 level if lucky.

Ahhh, excellent suggestions. I will look at those.

I try to avoid the Earthquake trinket if possible. It is just not very strong and with the gear I am already looking at, I will be in the mid-360s for gear an hour after I ding level 85 so...

When I started asking in /2 Trade yesterday to purchase the 359 BoE Tanking Shoulders, I got about 5 people who told me to just go ahead and get the 377 PvP Shoulders instead and that they would be fine for an Alt tank.

Yuck, that appears to be a HUGE downgrade to me IF I can find a set of the 359 BoE that someone is willing to sell.

So, the question is, how easy is it to get 378 shoulders from the new 5-mans?

The only set that I found were Pauldrons of the Dragonblight that drop from Benedictius in the final 5-man and they are a pure avoidance combo (Dodge/Parry). My chances on seeing that are not great (i.e. final boss and random-wise, the least probably instance due to many alts being locked to it by not having finished the first two).

Anyway, just going through the logic. I think I am going to continue to look for a pair of the 359 BoE ones.

With the dual 333 trinkets, a 318 ranged weapon (TH quest reward), retaining the 346 rings (if I don't find an Emberseal) and 359 shoulders (assuming I can find them to buy), my Prot Warrior will have an item level of 361 within an hour of dinging level 85 (after doing Thrall questline and purchasing Honor Point/Justice Point items with reforging, enchanting, gemming, etc).

Since you need 360 to queue up for the 4.3 5-man heroics, I am golden!

Skye1013 wrote:Aren't the shoulder enchants BoA? Or is that only the head enchants? Cause that might save you some rep grinding, especially if you've got alternatives for the rings (which it appears you do.)

Only the helm enchants are BoA. I'm currently finishing up all of Deepholm on my 9th character just to pick up the tabard. Kind of a bit sick of the zone by now.

Skye1013 wrote:Aren't the shoulder enchants BoA? Or is that only the head enchants? Cause that might save you some rep grinding, especially if you've got alternatives for the rings (which it appears you do.)

Only the helm enchants are BoA. I'm currently finishing up all of Deepholm on my 9th character just to pick up the tabard. Kind of a bit sick of the zone by now.

I think the head enchants ARE BoA BUT I don't think you can USE them if you don't have the required Rep.

It just makes it easier to have someone buy 2 or 3 of them when at the QM and send them around instead of having to parade every toon over to the QM.

If I am wrong then WOOT! I don't have to go quest in Vash (which I find VERY annoying).

Skye1013 wrote:Aren't the shoulder enchants BoA? Or is that only the head enchants? Cause that might save you some rep grinding, especially if you've got alternatives for the rings (which it appears you do.)

Only the helm enchants are BoA. I'm currently finishing up all of Deepholm on my 9th character just to pick up the tabard. Kind of a bit sick of the zone by now.

I think the head enchants ARE BoA BUT I don't think you can USE them if you don't have the required Rep.

It just makes it easier to have someone buy 2 or 3 of them when at the QM and send them around instead of having to parade every toon over to the QM.

If I am wrong then WOOT! I don't have to go quest in Vash (which I find VERY annoying).

Living Embers were down to 400 gold per on my realm so I picked up 8 in order to have the Mirrored Boots and Eternal Elementium Handguards crafted. Am mining all the rest of the Elementium I need in order to have the other crafted gear made.

Ran my first BG for honor, got 40ish HKs and still ended up only earning 35 honor since we did not win the match. Realized that it was going to be a LONG road to earning 2,200 Honor Points, went to WowHead to see if there was any alternative to that helm, scrolled down the list, saw the Reinforced Bio-Optic Killshades, said to myself "damn, only Engineers can make those" and went on my way.

Yes, it took me 3 minutes to realized that this toon WAS an Engineer and that I would be able to get these.

So, when I put my proposed toon in CharDev, it would not let me socket two identical Cogwheels in the helm. Does each Cogwhell need to be unique or can you put two Mastery Cogwheels in the helm?

If I can find the 359 BoE tank shoulders, CharDev returned a toon that had 31% avoidance and 90.05% CTC as a newly dinged level 85. That is with two 346 rings and two 333 trinkets. Lots of room to do better in those slots.

Yeah, cogwheels are unique, so you need to put two different gems in; the cogwheels are really just Blizzard's solution to having to itemise the goggles for different specs - they have two secondary stats like every item in Cataclysm, but you get to choose what those stats are.

poptart wrote:So, when I put my proposed toon in CharDev, it would not let me socket two identical Cogwheels in the helm. Does each Cogwhell need to be unique or can you put two Mastery Cogwheels in the helm?

Cogwheels are unique-equipped.

Should be a pretty decent way for you to balance your dodge and parry (taking into account HtL) as you can swing it by 416 rating.

poptart wrote:So, when I put my proposed toon in CharDev, it would not let me socket two identical Cogwheels in the helm. Does each Cogwhell need to be unique or can you put two Mastery Cogwheels in the helm?

Cogwheels are unique-equipped.

Should be a pretty decent way for you to balance your dodge and parry (taking into account HtL) as you can swing it by 416 rating.

Indeed.

I suspect that for a Prot Warrior where Parry is always going to be a bit more valued than Dodge that the proper combo is going to be Mastery/parry 99% of the time.

My "paper napkin" numbers show that after I get the Thrall quest cloak and enchant it, I will be at 3,451 Mastery rating, 1,324 Parry and 921 Dodge rating for a ratio of 1.43 Parry to Dodge.

That ratio is about perfect for that level of Mastery.

I think it is somewhat crazy that I can reach 90% CTC within an hour of dinging level 85. Granted, I will probably have put about 10k gold into the gear ahead of time but to be able to jump into the 4.3 5-man heroics with only one PvP piece (chest) is pretty great.